Opinion on EBAY

[StillGrande]

If a person says shipping based on actual shipping charges, send them a question with your zip and ask what they will charge. One guy wanted $5 to ship Priority Mail a set of decals. If they won't tell you, don't bid. There will always be another one just like it.

Also, check to see how they are calculating the charge. Anyone can use the USPS site and see what the real cost is. You can even get free boxes for priority mail shipping sent to your address!

I agree that there has been a rash of storefront pros selling for near LHS prices. When you calculate shipping, my LHS wins every time.

There are bargains, but you have to search. I love my Walthers catalog for ebay shopping. I can instantly look up the so called "rare finds" and determine real bargains.

[Anonymous]

How is a seller going to know the actual shipping charges until he has a buyer's zip code to figure out the costs out? Since I make no money from the buyers paying the freight, they pay exactly what it costs. However, I am honest! Also, I am not a BUSINESS using ebay to sell things. When a bidder asks me what shipping will be, I figure it out and tell him. Also, if you think a guy is ripping you off, you do not have to send him your money! If a seller has a flat shipping charge which appears too high, (which I see plenty of) this is a warning not to bid. Ebay espouses their "Feedback Forum" However, IMHO this aspect of ebay is almost worthless. If you burn someone with bad feedback, nine times out of ten they will do the same to you in rebuttle!

[GerFust]

MAbruce:

Good advice and insight!

Thanks,
Jer

[MAbruce]

QUOTE: Originally posted by GerFust



The only thing that makes me leary of buying more is the high variabilty in shipping charges. Sellers will ship controlllers to anywhere in the country for between $4.50 and $12.00. It makes me wonder when a seller says "buyer pays actualy shipping". [?] Perhaps you can help educate us?

[?] According to what do most sellers determine "actual shipping charges" and how does the seller know if that has been inflated after the sale?

[?] Also, how does one estimate the actual shipping charges before the sale, so as you say, we can consider that in setting our bid amount? Should one contact the seller and ask for a quote?

Shipping & handling have always been a hot issue on ebay (and with other on-line retailers). As for ebay, I generally stay away from those sellers who state that they will somehow determine the cost of shipping after the auction ends. This is a recipe for trouble. A seller should ALWAYS clearly state their shipping and/or handling charges, or give you some way to confirm them with the seller before you bid.

As for high shipping on ebay, well, you will just have to factor that into your bid. If a seller wants to charge a flat fee of $12.00 for shipping one LL N-scale freight car, well, you know it will never sell.

However, that said, there seems to be a rash of newer buyers in recent years who seem to want to pay top dollar for everything. Perhaps some of this is shill bidding, and some of it is impulsiveness from uneducated bidders. Whatever the case, don’t ever get into a bidding war with someone like this.

[GerFust]

deschane:

I'm not bashing eBay. In fact, it is the first place I turned to buy a new controller once I had researched what I wanted.

In my first experience with eBay I was amazed at what people were willing to spend on MRC Tech II 1500 controllers. Add in the shipping and people were paying close to 2/3 of what they could spent for a new Tech 4 220. I wouldn't say a 1/3 saving on out of date equipment is something I would do.

On the other hand, I did pick up a Tech 4 200, including shipping costs, that is less than half of what you would pay at the LHS or even through on-line retailers.

The only thing that makes me leary of buying more is the high variabilty in shipping charges. Sellers will ship controlllers to anywhere in the country for between $4.50 and $12.00. It makes me wonder when a seller says "buyer pays actualy shipping". [?] Perhaps you can help educate us?

[?] According to what do most sellers determine "actual shipping charges" and how does the seller know if that has been inflated after the sale?

[?] Also, how does one estimate the actual shipping charges before the sale, so as you say, we can consider that in setting our bid amount? Should one contact the seller and ask for a quote?

Thanks,
Jer

[Anonymous]

In the early days of ebay (before 2000), you could find a lot of great deals there. Most of the people selling train items were hobbiest. In the last few years, the number of 'professional' sellers has greatly increased. Most professional sellers are trying to sell items at prices that I could meet or beat at my LHS (local hobby shop). I am finding it is harder to find hobbiest who are willing to give a good deal.

As for trusting ebay buyers and sellers. In the nearly 5 years of trading on ebay, I have only been burned once by a seller. I have had a few dead bead buyers, but they are pretty easy to deal with. I have completed about 60 transaction over with the lowest being about $5 to as much as $800.

I will continue to use ebay, but I wi***here was an easier way to get through all the garbage listing placed by professionals, and to find all the listings placed by hobbiest.
--C. alan

[Anonymous]

I would guess this subject has been discussed and I have not seen it. However, I have seen some bad opinions about Ebay on this forum and wanted to put in my 2 cents worth. I both sell and buy on ebay and think it is a great way of doing both. Other things can be done with ebay which have nothing to do with either. Such as finding statistics on which railroad is most modeled, or, what scale is most popular, etc. Just now, I went to ebay to use it for statistics and found there are over 25,000 items for sale in HO, 19,000 for O scale and 8,500 for N. I have also determined that Santa Fe is the most popular, as there are the most items offered for sale in this livery.

As far as doing business on Ebay, I have made over 100 transactions on Ebay. This is not to say I am any kind of expert. However, I do have some experiance and have found in my own dealings that approximately 1 Ebayer in 25-30 are not trustworthy. So, due diligance is a must! This also means that most Ebayers are honest. Of the over 100 people I have delt with, I have only lost my money one time. The other bad occurances were mostly products being miss-represented.

Like I have seen people say, the buyer needs to educate himself on what it is he is buying. Basically you need to be able to buy the item with it's shipping costs, for what you would pay in a hobby shop. You can add some value if, you don't live near a hobby shop, but, remember if you where to buy it mail order or off the net, you would likely have several items to amortize the shipping costs over. I see may times where the buyer is paying more for an item than he would, if he'd done due diligance. As a seller, I love these guys!! However, I try not to do this when buying.

When selling, I attempt to price my items low enough to attract attention and hope they will get bid-up. However, I never set a price lower than I am willing to take for the item! I will sometimes set a "Buy It Now" price, when it is a real good item to sell. However, I don't use "Reserve Price" as I find it frustrates me, when I am buying, so I don't do this to my customers. My reserve price is my listing price.

There are unique and wonderful things out there for sale. Model trains is a very large catagory and you can find some deals and great buys, if you use due diligance and are patient. Also, I have eliminated a lot of stuff I simply do not need or want anymore. Ebay is an electronic Garage Sale!